The prediction is about long‑term ("following decades") negative consequences of COVID‑driven school closures, as seen in places like Flint, Michigan. Only about three years have passed since the podcast release on 22 January 2022, far short of the multi‑decade horizon needed to evaluate whether those long‑term effects "will be evident".

Early research does show measurable short‑term and medium‑term harms from pandemic‑era school closures—such as significant learning loss and widening achievement gaps in U.S. K–12 students, especially in disadvantaged districts—but these findings cover only the first few years after closures, not outcomes over decades. For example:

• Multiple studies using standardized test data (e.g., NAEP and state assessments) report substantial declines in math and reading performance after COVID disruptions, with larger losses in high‑poverty schools.
• Researchers and policy reports warn that these losses may have long‑run consequences for earnings and socioeconomic mobility, but those are projections and modeling exercises, not observed decades‑later outcomes.

Because the prediction specifically concerned effects that would be evident when outcomes are evaluated over the following decades, and we are still in the early 2020s, there is not yet direct empirical evidence to confirm or refute the long‑term outcome part of the claim. Therefore, it is too early to judge whether this prediction is ultimately right or wrong.